Nedum Onuoha Makes The Plane To Abu Dhabi

There's a timely defensive boost in the air for Manchester City as Nedum Onuoha closes in on a first team comeback and the club's rendezvous with The Boss...

City's Etihad Airways jet will be pushing back for Abu Dhabi this week at Ringway with Nedum Onuoha on board for the club's prestigious visit where they will be greeted by His Highness Sheikh Mansour.

The classy MCFC Academy graduate defender was unfortunate to not make The Blues starting line up in the opening games of the season following some quite brilliant performances in the second half of the last campaign.

He was unable to break through into Mark Hughes' then preferred Richards, Toure, Lescott and Bridge back four and suffered a nasty thigh injury in the reserves which has kept him out of action ever since.

But the news from SportCity today is a positive one as Ned came through a friendly at Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday giving him the green light to fly to the Middle East.

Sparky told the official City site:

'Nedum has been going about his rehabilitation in the same professional manner in which he does everything. It will be good to get him back in the group again and increasing the competition for places at the back.'

Would you bring Nedum into the defensive equation at the first opportunity? Drop us a line both here and in the VMC Forums...

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Nice to hear this great news at a time when we seem to be running out of ideas in the defence department, this could be the start of a beautiful partnership with either Toure or Lescott, i mean Toure will more than likely be on Africans Cup duty for a while in the new year so lets see if Ned can fill someone else's boots and keep it as his own

It'll be good to have Nedum back, he was really impressive during his longest run in the side during the 2nd half of last season and in my opinion is probbaly our best centre half. All we need now for him to get a chance is for Hughes to drop one of his expensive misfiring signings.

Going on last years form Nedum could be the man. He has shown signs of developing into a premier defender and hopefully once he's match fit again he can step up and help improve our struggling defence.

I would like to see Nedum stay fit and then he will be able to get and keep his place in the side. Like Dunney before him, he shpould start out at right back, he has the skill and speed, but mainly we want him fit and challenging the others for pl.aces

Great news that Ned's on his way back, but please give him some proper time to get match fitness, some fans have been crucifying our players recently who have been coming back from quite serious injuries.
I hope Ned hits the ground running but we shouldn't be surprised if he isn't the player we saw last season, he will probably need a few proper matches under his belt.
Unbelievably Vincent Kompany came in for stick from some fans recently when he played centre back, again, he's not match fit!
We can't affect the speed of our player's physical recovery, but we can speed their psychological recoveries up by getting behind them, and maybe that's the most important part for a player returning to the first team.
Best of luck Ned, we love you!

Nedum's injury problems have been the only cloud on the horizon for this magnificent player.
He's fast, strong, athletic and above all SMART. He's never been one ounce of trouble to the club and I can imagine him being here until the end of his career.
He should not be rushed back but when match fit will be incredibly hard to keep out of the team and then watch out...